Over the last several weeks I have started to think about different aspects of fitness and how they all work together and will certainly get back to the training aspect in upcoming weeks but I did want to layer in on the topic of consistency.

My schedule has been a bear and very weird. Somedays I was going to CrossFit at 5:30am while others I had to make it to the 6:30pm class. The word “consistency” comes up time and time again when you are looking at successful individuals and that “success” can be a number of things. What rarely happens is someone try something for a short period of time and think all of a sudden they will see a huge leap. It never happens.

This is why diets don’t work.

But, anyways, the reason I thought this post was relevant was that whatever you are doing you must stay consistent with it even through the tough times especially if other competing priorities come into play. You need to be looking at the long game and understand that some sacrifices will have to be made or changes may have to happen but you need to stack rank what are MOST important and what can be brushed aside even if it feels like you are giving up something really cool.

In regards to CrossFit, being consistent with 4-5 days a week always me some flexibility where I am not going all 7 but also keeps pushing me later in the week if I have new things pop up on my schedule. I wouldn’t have near the gains I’ve had in 6 months had I not been committed and stay consistent with my schedule. I’d encourage everyone to take a look at their day or week outlook at what things will set you up for long term success and which ones are merely “time robbers” in the short term.

More to come on this in the future but certainly relevant at this point as Football is starting back up, kids are back to school, and holidays are right around the corner.

In Episode 22 I get a chance to sit down with Dr. Zach Long, a Board Certified Sports Specialist and the creator of the industry leading fitness website, TheBarbellPhysio.com.

I reached out to Zach after coming across some of his content online and was blown away at the amount of great insight and knowledge he puts out there. He has a really cool story about how he got involved in fitness and physical therapy and his path to starting and building upon his website, The Barbell Physio.

His Dad was his high school football coach and probably the biggest influence on his life and had a great quote he used to say, “Don’t ask yourself what the world needs, ask yourself what makes you come alive”. Very fitting for this episode and the entire Just Get Started Podcast series!

We get into a whole lot of different topics where we crush a few myths and learn a little bit about “Dry Needling”.

I know you all with love this conversation and if you get a chance to listen I hope you enjoy!

About Dr. Zach Long

Dr. Zach Long is a physical therapist and CrossFit coach located in Charlotte, NC. He attended the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where he majored in exercise and sport science, and East Carolina University, where he earned his doctorate in physical therapy. He specializes in improving athletic performance and injury rehab of athletes from Olympians to weekend warriors.

It’s hard to write these things about yourself but I’m just a very curious guy that wants to learn as much as I can about the world and the people in it. With a new found motivation many years ago to achieve certain goals and push beyond status quo, I wanted to speak with people that were breaking out of their comfort zones and try to capture how they were doing it and what insight could be shared to help others. I hope you all will continue along on the journey with me and share any feedback you have.

If you enjoyed this episode or others please consider leaving a review on iTunes or whichever Podcast platform you listen on.

This week was a big learning week for me and it made me reflect on the last 6 months and this CrossFit journey I am on.

I look at my progress and where I came from and it again reinforces that old Tony Horton saying “Rome wasn’t built in a day, neither was your body”. The commitments I make each and every week to get to classes and my increased focus on nutrition has allowed me to accomplish many new goals that I never thought possible.

From squatting heavy weights to my endurance, I’ve been able to get in the best shape of my life and do it by learning a tremendous amount about proper technique, work ethic, nutrition and having a lot of fun doing it.

Short post this week but one of the cool things was I did get to talk with Dr. Zach Long from the industry leading fitness website, BarbellPhysio.com as I had him as a guest on my Just Get Started Podcast. Check out the episode here -> https://www.brianondrako.com/podcast/drzachlong

James Carbary is the founder of Sweet Fish Media, a podcast agency for B2B brands. He’s a contributor for the Huffington Post & Business Insider, and he also co-hosts a top-ranked podcast according to Forbes: B2B Growth. When James isn’t interviewing the smartest minds in B2B marketing, he’s drinking Cherry Coke Zero, eating Swedish Fish, and hanging out with the most incredible woman on the planet (who he somehow talked into marrying him).

We had an incredible conversation and I was thankful James could make some room in his busy schedule to discuss his story of how he started his business and some of the neat things they are doing. I really feel he is breaking down some walls and pioneering a brand new avenue for content creation. That path is being called “Content-based Networking” and I think this will ultimately be a wave of the future.

It’s hard to write these things about yourself but I’m just a very curious guy that wants to learn as much as I can about the world and the people in it. With a new found motivation many years ago to achieve certain goals and push beyond status quo, I wanted to speak with people that were breaking out of their comfort zones and try to capture how they were doing it and what insight could be shared to help others. I hope you all will continue along on the journey with me and share any feedback you have.

If you enjoyed this episode or others please consider leaving a review on iTunes or whichever Podcast platform you listen on.

Week 27 of my journey saw me only hit 2 days at the gym (Monday and Sunday) due to a work event most of the week and wanting to get a round of golf in on Saturday. But…some of that was intentional and used to give myself a little rest before I go straight for about 2 weeks.

I’m continually coming back to the notion that you must listen to your body and not try to overwork it when you feel a bit off. I had a sore left should/neck area going into this past week and after the workout Monday I felt that the few days I thought I’d miss might end up being good and not to stress it.

Additionally, I was jacked up to get back there today so it put a little pep in my step as i’d been missing it.

Crushing workouts and feeling fit is always great but it can’t be done if your mind and body are not healthy and recovered.

Sometimes a little rest goes a long way to making your progress even that much more.

Episode 20 features a true entrepreneur at heart and a guy with so much experience under his belt I wish I got to spend several hours with him. Chip was a delight to speak with and we covered a variety of topics about his upbringing having to adjust from an introvert to extrovert during adolescence, taking a gamble on his first hotel property, and making a shift in his life at the age of 52 to take on a role at fast-growing Airbnb

I think you’ll all love the entire conversation with Chip and for more about him and to find him online please see links below:

About Chip:

Rebel hospitality entrepreneur and New York Times bestselling author, Chip Conley is a leader at the forefront of the sharing economy. At age 26 he founded Joie de Vivre Hospitality (JdV), transforming one inner-city motel into the second largest boutique hotel brand in America. After running his company as CEO for 24 years, he sold it and soon the young founders of Airbnb asked him to help transform their promising start-up into the world’s leading hospitality brand. Chip served as Airbnb’s Head of Global Hospitality and Strategy for four years and today acts as the company’s Strategic Advisor for Hospitality and Leadership. His five books include PEAK and EMOTIONAL EQUATIONS and are inspired by the theories of transformation and meaning by famed psychologists Abraham Maslow and Viktor Frankl.

In his new book, WISDOM@WORK: The Making of a Modern Elder (September 2018), Chip shares his experiences – as both mentor and unexpected intern – at Airbnb. He is the founder of Fest300 (part of Everfest), San Francisco’s annual “Celebrity Pool Toss” that has raised millions for families in the neighborhood where he opened his first hotel, and the Hotel Hero Awards that shine a light on outstanding line level employees. Chip is a recipient of hospitality’s highest honor, the Pioneer Award, and holds a BA and MBA from Stanford University, and an honorary doctorate in psychology from Saybrook University. He serves on the boards of the Burning Man Project and the Esalen Institute, where the Conley Library bears his name.

Marketing that Matters: 10 Practices to Profit Your Business and Change the World

Emotional Equations: Simple Truths for Creating Happiness + Success in Business + in Life.

About the Host:

It’s hard to write these things about yourself but I’m just a very curious guy that wants to learn as much as I can about the world and the people in it. With a new found motivation many years ago to achieve certain goals and push beyond status quo, I wanted to speak with people that were breaking out of their comfort zones and try to capture how they were doing it and what insight could be shared to help others. I hope you all will continue along on the journey with me and share any feedback you have.

If you enjoyed this episode or others please consider leaving a review on iTunes or whichever Podcast platform you listen on.

I cannot believe 6 months of CrossFit is already in the books. Incredible!

Each week has been it’s own special challenge but I wanted to piggy back this weeks post off of one from a few weeks ago and just confirm that proper nutrition, along with proper sleep, are so important to training. Maybe more important that I’ve ever realized. Earlier in the summer and, in fact, in workouts well prior too I definitely didn’t put a lot of thought into how much eating the right amount of calories and proportions of Carbs, Protein, and Fat were to reaching my fitness goals.

Long story short, after tracking my calories for 3 weeks and really focusing on hitting 3,000 calories a day I have absolutely been crushing my workouts and having so much energy to stay powered all the way through. I’m noticing that I am now starting to keep up with some of the CrossFit veterans in our class (although sometimes I’m doing a much different weight) but it’s still in comparison to my strength.

If you’re reading this and confused on why you are sluggish during the day, always hungry and different points, or just feel like you don’t have the energy to workout then it may be time to consult a nutritionist and put some effort into what and when you put stuff into your body.

I can speak from experience of how it was before and now seeing the after and what it can do for you.

Had some great workouts this past week but thought I’d take an opportunity just to mention the importance of listening to your body, especially when it comes to injury. I’m not a doctor but I’ve found that logical diagnosis often times wins the day.

During Tuesdays workout I was pushing hard through this RFT workout of 70 cal row, 50 pushups, and 40 wall balls. I must have tweaked something with my bicep because on Wednesday it didn’t feel all that great. I had a little soreness but my arm felt weak.

My self diagnosis was “bicep tendinitis” which I realized last in the week.

So, I decided to workout on Wednesday to “test” it out and it was semi-painful to the extent that I couldn’t put 100% into the workout.

With that, I got smart. I decided to rest for a couple of days and put minimal movement into the arm.

I decided to test it again on Saturday and everything seemed great until we got into some rope climbs late in the workout which ended up tweaking it slightly.

Had a great chat with one of the coaches there and was encouraged to do some maintenance on the arm (ice, massage, etc) whichever I felt I should do as well as stay away from doing major pulling movements for a week or two or at least to resist doing them.

All in all, I iced my arm through the weekend and feel like it will take some time to fully heal but I’m not focused on not overworking the arm and being smart about my level of effort with it.

Moral of the story: Listen to your body because taking a few days off to recover and heal is much better than tearing something more and having to sit out months. Egos get in the way a lot so being smart about those type of decisions could lead to better results down the road.

Had another great week of killer workouts but this week I’m going to focus on nutrition as it has been a big key for me lately.

I’ve been monitoring how I feel in correlation to my eating over the past month or so and realized I’d be spent in regards to energy when I tried to workout in the evening. What I came to realize was that I wasn’t getting near enough calories a day and lacking very much in my protein intake (which wasn’t helping my muscle gain goal).

I spoke with a nutritionist on Monday and it cleared up many things for me. It confirmed several of the things I was doing right and highlighted some of my core areas. I’ve started to track my calories for a period of time to make sure I am hitting some goals. Right now, I am trying to hit about 3,000 calories per day. It’s insane how much food that actually is but I know in the long run I’ll put on some weight and start to see my muscles get some growth as well.

Cliffs Notes version of changes:

I was eating a “good” breakfast in regards to nutritious foods like bananas, avocados, oatmeal, etc but was lacking big time in protein intake. This was putting me behind the eight-ball for the day and I was always hungry midday.

The Change: I am now eating 2-3 eggs in the morning and having that on top of avocado toast or scrambling up with some sweet potato hash / pepper combo. It’s kept me full for the last week and I feel I have way more energy.

2. For snack, I was eating mainly fruit and about 1-2 cups of blueberries, strawberries, or a banana.

The Change: I am adding some protein like peanut butter or some yogurt to the snack and still eating the fruit.

3. Since I took away meat from my diet 18 months ago, I’ve been trying to figure out what to replace it with and have come across these plant based items that taste and feel like meat. I used to eat a lot of this stuff like several servings a weeks.

The Change: I didn’t realize that not only are these heavily processed but they are made mainly of soy. For males, too high of soy intake adds a lot of estrogen into the body and can mess up hormone levels a bit. So, I’ve cut back on this drastically to see if I notice any big changes. I’ve added more fish to my diet to get back to a cleaner protein.

I’ve been very conscious the last several years of my food intake and eating cleaner but didn’t put this level of thought into it. Just recording my eating habits this week and monitoring how I feel I can say that not only am I full throughout the day but I have a lot more energy when it comes to evening workouts.

Moral of the story is that it’s important to always be asking questions of yourself on how you can improve and get better and don’t be afraid of the answers as hopefully figuring that out will improve “YOU” in the long run.

In Episode 19 I get a chance to talk sales with one of the most well sought out after Sales Trainers out there, John Barrows.

John has provided sales training and consulting services to some of the world’s fastest growing companies like Salesforce.com, Google, LinkedIn, DropBox, and many others. His previous experience spans all aspects of Sales at every level from making 400 cold calls a week as an inside sales rep to a VP of Sales at his first start up that was sold to Staples.

He’s an active sales professional who has learned a lot about what works and doesn’t work in Sales and loves sharing the tips and techniques he has found to have had an impact along the way. His main goal is to improve the overall education and quality of Sales by sharing ideas and techniques that work.

In this episode I get to talk with John about his upbringing and how he came about to become a sales trainer, insight for sales professionals and how they should look at their careers, and one of the biggest differences between top performing sales professionals and the rest.

It’s hard to write these things about yourself but I’m just a very curious guy that wants to learn as much as I can about the world and the people in it. With a new found motivation many years ago to achieve certain goals and push beyond status quo, I wanted to speak with people that were breaking out of their comfort zones and try to capture how they were doing it and what insight could be shared to help others. I hope you all will continue along on the journey with me and share any feedback you have.

If you enjoyed this episode or others please consider leaving a review on iTunes or whichever Podcast platform you listen on.